How scary is it when.........

[dougpine]

I was in a simulator course at MSI last fall and we got to perform MOB recovery, holding a range to an anchorage with a cross current, and docking on a DDG . . . "If finesse won't do it, horsepower will!"

When you are used to handling single screw bulkers with, at most, 10,000hp at 8.08m draft, it was quite an experience. Talk about being able to twist and walk a boat.

We've done some pretty fun stuff with the Destroyer model in Advanced Shiphandling classes at PMI. It speeds things up when there are lots of students. Constant rate of turn at 30 knots, anyone?

[mtskier]

D, Do I need to take that class again, say in late March? : )
MTSKIER

[Ordinaryseaman]

How scary is it when-

as a brand new OS you are standing lookout with the mate... it's the middle of the night on a busy river just outside a major Northwest city.. the mate asks if you want to give the helm a try... you tell him you've never steered before- but you're happy to learn..

You're on the helm- and nervous- for a minute or two..

The mate asks how comfortable you are on the helm..

You say- "not at all comfortable- but I guess that comes with time"

The mate tells you he has to go to to the bathroom- and will be back shortly- then immediately walks off.. leaving you alone..

10 minutes later he returns and relieves a very relieved OS...

[injunear]

......you're half through a discharge of 150k bbl of cracking stock. You step out of the pump room to see the dock super having an apoplexy. It soon becomes clear why when you notice the DEU leaning on the hand rail, in cut-offs and flip-flops, no hard hat, talking on a cell phone, smoking a cigarette, directly in front of the dock office.
When asked WTF he was thinking, his response was "what's the big deal?? I'm off watch".

[Cal]

......you're half through a discharge of 150k bbl of cracking stock. You step out of the pump room to see the dock super having an apoplexy. It soon becomes clear why when you notice the DEU leaning on the hand rail, in cut-offs and flip-flops, no hard hat, talking on a cell phone, smoking a cigarette, directly in front of the dock office.
When asked WTF he was thinking, his response was "what's the big deal?? I'm off watch".

This job is dangerous enough without having to keep an unending lookout for someone that is desperately seeking their Darwin Award.

[Shellback]

"...an 88,000 hp 600 foot twin screw ship that does 34 knots!"

Sounds just about right for a Spruance-class DD.

Sure does, the Greyhounds of the seas...

[RkyMtn Paul]

Cal, twin screw with control reversible pitch screws. USS Caron DD970!! When the tugs were late taking us off the pier in Norfolk, our skipper would pull us off the dock w/o them. Even docked once. A lot of junior officers learned quite a bit about ship handling. Skipper was a Mass Maritime grad.

injunear, DOH!!

[cmakin]

I've been witness to many examples of the Lord taking care of drunks and sailors in the last 39 years. Especially with electricity. One that is burned into my memory...

We were caught in a winter storm for 4 days towing 225K bbl of MTBE. When the weather subsided, we got into the notch. The OS and I boarded the barge for inspection. I radioed back that there was 6 inches of water in the generator room and proceeded to the bow to check the wireways and windlass motor cmpt. On arriving at the bow, the generator was started and and put on line. I must have set the fat man speed record to the manifold emergency shut-down. It was enclosed in ice. Seconds later, when I hit the kill switch at the generator room, I peered down to see the CM standing in ankle deep water at the switchboard, adjusting the speed control.

That is why I never taught my mates how to start a generator. It never bothered me to get out of bed in the middle of the night to put a generator on. Somethings don't need to be delegated.

[cmakin]

Here is one. Doing supper relief, 3A/E on an SL-7 entering Rotterdam, pilot on board and answering bells. On the starboard throttle, the other Day Third on supper relief for the port side. Steaming at full ahead, both shafts. All of the sudden, getting a low steam drum level alarm. Feed water pressure and pump rpm okay. Main Steam pressure and temp okay. RPM-WHAT? 35 and dropping? Throttle control not responding. Open cabinet and start pumping handle for emergency hydraulics to throttle, still no response. RPM dropping. Steam drum level also dropping, but from press, not an issue anymore. See crack in emergency pump oil reservoir, start filling and getting pressure from hand pump. Throttle responding. Whew. Took about five minutes, but felt like an hour. Ultimate problem was the failure of the hydraulic pump coupling to the electric motor for the starboard throttle. Permanently fixed in about two hours.

[injunear]

Took about five minutes, but felt like an hour.

This will be covered under "Space/Time Continuum studies" in the new STCW requirements for engineers.

[seadog!]

"Permanently fixed in about two hours."

A lifetime warranty?
Check all couplings AT LEAST yearly.

[cmakin]

"Permanently fixed in about two hours."

A lifetime warranty?
Check all couplings AT LEAST yearly.

Yeah, well permanent in the sense that it was replaced and greased. For someone who was dispatched from the hall as a temporary replacement, that is a permanent repair. We were finding all kinds of little things like this on the ship while I was onboard. She was laid up for six months and was brought out when I signed on; one of the last SL-7s to be purchased by the Government.

[stevefoster]

Yeah, well permanent in the sense that it was replaced and greased. For someone who was dispatched from the hall as a temporary replacement, that is a permanent repair. We were finding all kinds of little things like this on the ship while I was onboard. She was laid up for six months and was brought out when I signed on; one of the last SL-7s to be purchased by the Government.

A Sealand ship was the first ship that I served aboard that had airconditioning.........

[Capt. Lee]

How Scary is it...

When you walk on the bridge of the crew boat at night and the mate is not there, the radars are off and the boat is hooked up 23-24 kts going through the rabbit field. You ask the deck hand where the mate on watch is. He says he is in the bunk taking a nap. You ask why the radars are off and he explains he doesn't need the radars, because he has the headlights on...(both spot lights).

For those of you not familiar with the rabbit field, it is the field to the south of Fourchon that has so many little platforms and satellites that it looks like a brier patch on the radar screen.

What's even scarier is when you tell the office about it, they do nothing.

True Story!!

[rjbpilot]

How Scary is it...

When you walk on the bridge of the crew boat at night and the mate is not there, the radars are off and the boat is hooked up 23-24 kts going through the rabbit field. You ask the deck hand where the mate on watch is. He says he is in the bunk taking a nap. You ask why the radars are off and he explains he doesn't need the radars, because he has the headlights on...(both spot lights).

For those of you not familiar with the rabbit field, it is the field to the south of Fourchon that has so many little platforms and satellites that it looks like a brier patch on the radar screen.

What's even scarier is when you tell the office about it, they do nothing.

True Story!!

Miraculous you hit nothing..............that place is a nightmare with the radars on!

[tugsri]

You go up to relieve the mate @0530 and he is playing "Tomb Raider" on his laptop while towing a light barge on a short wire westbound under the Hell Gate RR Bridge with a roaring fair current! Last nights sleep with THAT Mate on the Boat!Q

[kzoo pilot]

I thought STCW and the TOAR made sure all mariners were trained and professional; huh I guess all that paperwork didn't mean jack squat.

[captbbrucato]

How scary is it.... when you've been cleared to make a fair tide transit of the Cape Cod Canal on a night when the visibility is between a 1/2 to 3/4nm. No sooner did we pass the West End Stakes, idling along in push gear at 7 knots with 75k bbls of jet fuel and 21' deep draft, when we heard Canal Control telling a west-bounder approaching the East End Breakwaters that visibility had dropped to less than an 1/8th of a mile at the Bourne Railroad bridge.
You can't stop, turn around, or ask for help. It was more like zero with a bit of loom from the lights along the bike paths. It was the most intense video game I ever played, all the while I was praying the radars wouldn't blink (I know I didn't for a hour). We could barely see the bow of the barge much less anything else until we were under the bridge at Sandwich. Talk about "pucker factor".

[rjbpilot]

How scary is it when..........

On a Great Lakes thousand footer, the Capt. decides to transit the Livingstone Channel in zero visibility fog (Lower 6 miles of the Detroit River which is formed by rock revetments with channel width of about 300 feet). The vessel has a beam of 105 ft. We used ECDIS and Radar for the transit. " Just keep it on the line, Mate" . "Roger that, Capt. No problem"...........I had that experience three times on two different vessels. So trusting of the GPS/DGPS signals, it never failed to amaze me. I was comfortable with my performance, I was just worried about the accuracy of the DGPS signal and if we would happen to lose a radar. That's always the time you lose a radar, not on a clear, sunny day..................

[water]

rjbpilot - There was a watercolor artist who specialized in Great Lakes vessels who lived with her family right by the ferry landing at the top of the Rock Cut on the St. Mary's River. She said that about every other year a downbounder failed to successfully negotiate the turn into the Rock Cut, and it looked like they were heading into her living room before they ran aground.

Then they got to watch them offload the vessel to get it refloated.

[Old Bakelite]

This has been a quite intriguing thread (nothing like a good incident to perk one's interest!), and coinciding with this month's Seaways, I am prompted to ask if there is a need or value for gCaptain in having a more "dedicated" reporting scheme similar to The Nautical Institute's MARS (Mariners' Alerting and Reporting Scheme)?

It is not all about near misses or leaving the Junior OS alone on the helm in narrow waters, because this month there were topics such as "Improperly repacked liferafts", "Inert gas system failure", "Fire in fish room" and "Hand injured during winch greasing".

As the NI says; "The Mariners' Alerting and Reporting Scheme is a confidential reporting system run by The Nautical Institute to allow full reporting of Accidents (and Near Misses) without fear of litigation."

Hopefully there would be no conflict of interest in having a similar reporting scheme. Both the NI and gCaptain are run by mariners for mariners having nothing but the best interests of mariners at heart.

It seems to me that we are all preachers of good seamanship although we may not all, or always, be "practicers" of good seamanship. gCaptain certainly has a wealth of experienced members who could contribute their valuable and current experiences to such a cause. Maybe a Sub-Forum section under Maritime Reporter for example.

In addition to the reporting of incidents there is also a "Root cause/contributory factors", "Lessons learned" and "Corrective/preventative actions".

More on MARS here: http://www.nautinst.org/MARS/index.htm

[kzoo pilot]

rjbpilot - There was a watercolor artist who specialized in Great Lakes vessels who lived with her family right by the ferry landing at the top of the Rock Cut on the St. Mary's River. She said that about every other year a downbounder failed to successfully negotiate the turn into the Rock Cut, and it looked like they were heading into her living room before they ran aground.

Then they got to watch them offload the vessel to get it refloated.

Her son now owns a coffee shop/gallery in Detour Village at the lower end of the river. Nice people. He used to drive for the pilots a few years ago.

[rjbpilot]

How scary is it when.......

You get your first rescue mission on the Columbia River Bar. I was a kid of 23 and just qualified as coxswain for the self-right 44ft Motor lifeboat at Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment. There was a maximum ebb current running with 12ft to 16ft breakers. A 36ft fishing charter requested immediate assistance due to a jammed rudder that was hard to starboard. They had a full crew and passengers on board and were in danger of being sucked out into Peacock Spit, an area of extreme currents and unpredictable close-out breakers that would surely have doomed the vessel. I had a boat crew of three: two deckhands and an engineer. We arrived on scene about midway out the river near buoys nine and ten. The charter vessel was turning circles and keeping headway on to avoid being capsised or broaching by the breakers. In order to pass them a towline I had to carefully match their speed and have my boat crew ready with the heaving line.........we only had limited attempts to pass the line before the whole operation was out past the North Jetty and into Peacock Spit. When the speed was matched and the we were as close as I felt comfortable, I gave the word and deckhand, Seamen Mike Dougherty, let the best toss I had ever seen go.....it landed right across their bow and into the hands of a crewmen. They pulled the towline over and connected in less than a minute (all the while we are still circles to keep headway on). Finally in tow, but we had to pass a tire drogue down the towline to attach on their port quarter to help the tow track better. It was a very challenging event and when I look back on it I am amazed that I was not scared! I was too young and inexperienced to be scared. It was my job. I was in the Coast Guard! I rescued people and saved lives! Now at 44, I look back and can not believe the risks we took and accepted them as normal and "just what we do". I will always fondly remember the days of Cape "D" and the personnel I served with. You may hear one or two more stories later in this thread.

[captbbrucato]

In response to Old Bakelite;
"This has been a quite intriguing thread (nothing like a good incident to perk one's interest!), and coinciding with this month's Seaways, I am prompted to ask if there is a need or value for gCaptain in having a more "dedicated" reporting scheme similar to The Nautical Institute's MARS (Mariners' Alerting and Reporting Scheme)?.......................................... .....As the NI says; "The Mariners' Alerting and Reporting Scheme is a confidential reporting system run by The Nautical Institute to allow full reporting of Accidents (and Near Misses) without fear of litigation."......................................

With all due respect, years ago the notion that we should report near misses and such came up at a company meeting. I said it then and I'll say it now; there is no way that I believe anonymity is possible when reporting a near miss. I'd be hard pressed to file a near miss report given that my entire day would be consumed with reporting meeting, passing, or overtaking in close quarters (all considered near misses).
Nearly everything that happens during a workday can qualify whether it's meeting in a turn, or a splash of gasoline when hooking up hoses, or even walking down a icy gangway, should I ever decide to document each and every one, I would be in the Port Captain's office quicker than a 2692.

"Hopefully there would be no conflict of interest in having a similar reporting scheme. Both the NI and gCaptain are run by mariners for mariners having nothing but the best interests of mariners at heart. "

This forum can't offer protection from litigation, usernames and account information details are not sacrosanct and can be subpoenaed by any court. You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise.
The idea isn't new, the "Devil is in the details".
I don't think the terms "preachers" or "practicers" of good seamanship is correct, I believe I would call us practitioners, with the emphasis on practice.

[Old Bakelite]

...or a splash of gasoline when hooking up hoses, or even walking down a icy gangway,...

This forum can't offer protection from litigation, usernames and account information details are not sacrosanct and can be subpoenaed by any court. You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise...

Capt.

Apologies for kidding myself and my ignorance. I hope you were kidding about the gasoline spill, otherwise someone could be coming after you... However, The Nautical Institute is a quite highly regarded organization so it would be interesting to know how they have fared so far in the legal arena. I will ask them and see what they have to say and report back.

It would also be interesting to know the position of gCaptain on this, because if they can not offer protection to the posters here, then they may want to warn accordingly. Some of the posters may even want to reconsider their posts?

If you are not already a member of the NI then I am sure they would welcome someone with your experience, (like most organizations, new "paying" members are always welcome!). Perhaps it is not all about the reporting of incidents but how they are addressed afterward, and you could surely give some good insight as to how you implement new onboard procedures quickly after each minor spill or slippery circumstance.